Difference Between Who and Whom

The two words who and whom belong topronounsin the English grammar. Thekey differencebetween who and whom is thatwho denotes the subjective case while whom denotes the objective case as interrogative pronouns.

Without having a clear idea about the difference between who and whom we cannot use the two terms in a grammatically correct manner. When it comes to the word who, it is used as aninterrogative pronounas well as a relative pronoun.

1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What Does Who Mean
3.What Does Whom Mean
4.Side by Side Comparison – Who vs Whom in Tabular Form
5.Summary

What Does Who mean?

这让奥gin of the word who lies in theOld Englishword hwā. Moreover, in the English language, there are a number of phrases that use the word who. Some examples of the phrases that use the word who are as who should say, who am I to do something and who goes there. Who can be both an interrogative as well as a relative pronoun.

Figure 01: Using Who as an Interrogative Pronoun

The word who is used as a subject as in the sentences given below.

Who broke this window?

Who captured this state?

In both the sentences, the word who is used in the position of a subject. If you look at these sentences clearly, you will see that who is used as an interrogative pronoun. On the other hand, the word who is often followed by the auxiliary verbs, either ‘is’ or ‘was’ as in the sentences given below:

Who is the captain of the cricket team?

Who was the leader of the opposition then?

In both the sentences mentioned above, you can see that the word who is followed by the auxiliary verbs ‘is’ and ‘was’. It is important to know that who is often used in questions as in the sentence given below:

Who defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun?

In the sentence given above, you can see how who is used in a question. All the example mentioned before also show this fact. It is also important to know that the word whom is often preceded by other prepositions too such as ‘by’ and ‘from’ and sometimes ‘of’ as in the sentence given below.

由谁是国王在战斗中丧生吗?

What Does Whom mean?

On the other hand, the word whom is used as an object as in the sentences given below:

Who said it to whom?

To whom did he give the book?

In both the sentences, the word whom is used as an object. This is the main difference between the two words who and whom. Actually, whom is used instead of who as the object of a verb or preposition. It is interesting to note that the word whom is often preceded by the preposition ‘to’ as in the sentence given below.

To whom did you give your pencil?

It is important to know that whom is often used in questions as in the sentence given below:

To whom did you give your car?

In the sentence given above, you can see the manner in which whom is used in a question. Most of the examples mentioned before also portray the same fact.

What is the Difference Between Who and Whom?

Who vs Whom
The word who is used to introduce a clause giving further information about a person or people previously mentioned.	The word whom is used instead of ‘who’ as the object of a verb or preposition.
Grammatical Category
Who can be both an interrogative pronoun and a relative pronoun	Whom is an interrogative pronoun
Usage
Who is the subjective form	Whom is the corresponding objective form of who
Auxiliary
The word who is often followed by the auxiliary verbs, either ‘is’ or ‘was.’	The word whom is often preceded by the preposition ‘to.

Summary – Who vs Whom

Both who and whom can be categorised under the grammatical category of pronouns in the English language. The difference between who and whom is that who denotes the subjective case and whom denotes the objective case as interrogative pronouns.